Waldraud Introduces - Toymail by Gauri and Audry
Toymail was founded in 2012 with a mission to keep families connected without putting kids behind another screen. Screentime is a contstant struggle for parents with children spending 8 hours a day in front of laptops, tablets, and tvs. So many devices for kids isolate them behind a screen. Toymail wanted to create opportunities for kids to play with the people they love even when they can't be together.
Toymail - Gauri and Audry, the two founders
Waldraud - What is the purpose of Toymail and the Mailmen?
Gauri - Our little devices Mailmen do just one thing, and that is to let you communicate with someone who actually matters to you. We could have housed our technology in any form factor, but we were always firm in the belief that it should be a toy. We want kids to play. We want them playing with with physical objects. When we were little, we our half dressed Barbies hitched rides from My LIttle Pony so as not to miss the pie eating contests going on at the county fairs we held in our front yards. That kind of experiential, open ended play is what makes kids' brains such incredible machinery. Our toys make that play even richer. While Toymail starts with messaging, what we have built is as intelligent as the Cloud. There literally is no limit to what it can say. Soon these toys will enable you to read your kid their favorite bedtime story, take them on a virtual scavenger hunt, teach them a foreign language, or sing them songs. Our technology animates toys in ways that we once imagined our own toys coming to life.
Waldraud - Who are you?
Gauri - Toymail was founded by MIT graduate Gauri Nanda (me), and my best friend, Audry Hill, a mother of three. At the age of 25, Nanda brought to market the alarm clock that runs away called Clocky®, as featured on the cover of Inc magazine. Gauri and Audry worked together for over 10 years on Clocky and a family of run away alarm clocks (Ticky, Tocky, and now Pop Clocky), selling millions worldwide.
Toymail - Mailmen lineup
Waldraud - What do you love most about your job?
Gauri - What I love most about my job is that I get to dream up a vision and see it to fruition. The creative process is a journey that can take many fascinating twists and turns. What I love most about my job is that I get to dream up a vision and see it to fruition. The creative process is a journey that can take many fascinating twists and turns.
Waldraud Products at Our Customers
Christof Plümacher - Matterhorn
MINT - Wardopes
Minus Tio - In the Neighbourhood
New Brand- Maison Martin Margiela Line 13
Margielas Line 13 consists of homogeneous objects entirely in agreement with the Belgian designer's signature faceless.
Maison Martin Margiela Line 13 - Different products soon available at Waldraud
New Brand - Toymail
We are happy to introduce you to our next product discovery - the Mailmen. Mailmen are global walkie talkies that connect families all around the world. You can send free voice messaging to and from the Mailmen through Toymail's iPhone/Android app. Send your message anytime and children can reply right back. The Mailmen were funded with the international crowdfunding plattform kickstarter and through Waldraud they now enter the Swiss market.
Toymail - Different Mailmen with different voices, 60 CHF. Photo: Play Hunter
Toymail - On the back of the Mailmen there are buttons to play and record messages. Photo: Play Hunter
Watch a short movie and see how the Mailmen work:
Toymail - Video
Toymail - Mailmen and the Toymail app (available for Iphone and Android) for sending and receiving messages
Waldraud Products at Our Customers
You can be part of this column - just send a picture to info@waldraud.com.
Mint - Chair Ghost
Pols - Potten X-mas tear
Mint - Chair Ghost
Plumen - Bulb
New Brand - Echtwald
The German label Echtwald distributes exclusively produced regional and sustainable products. A central concern of the the label is the protection and expansion of natural forests as well as the active remodeling of commercial forests in natural forests. This is why the proceeds from the sales of the Echtwald products directly contribute to the acquisition and restoration of forest areas.
Echtwald - Selection of products soon available at Waldraud
New Arrival - Azabala
Azabala - Owin parka and Adis skirt
Azabala - Tile shirt, Jak pullover and Adis skirt
Azabala - Raim jumpsuit
Travelogue - Ann, Daniel, Lorenz and Henke Scouting in Belgium
A couple of weeks ago the Waldraud team took off to Kortrijk in Belgium to visit the Biennale Interieur 2014. The Kortrijk design week takes place every second year and offers a highly curated selection of furnishing designers. This year's theme was “the home does not exist.”
“Property might no longer be owned but rented, that currencies and governmental services might be decentralised, that the growing gap between our physical selves and our digital identities may generate unexpected social outcomes.” (Joseph Grima (GB) & Space Caviar (IT), curators Biennale Interieur 2014)
Our favorite location was Broelschool, a former school that will soon be demolished to make space for luxury houses. A location that was inspiring & freaky at the same time. It was like being led through a ghost house with inspirational sources and objects where you did not expect them.
New Arrival - Max and the Mirror
Max and the Mirror - CRone clothing rack now also available in black and white matt
New Arrival - Jimi Roos
Jimi Roos are Italian made t-shirts, sweaters and shirts embroidered with creative graphic designs using a standard sewing machine. Behinde the brand stands Swedish born and Italian trained designer Jimi Roos who still today embroids every single products with his own machine.
Click on the film to see how he does it.
jimi roos opens to 22A|22 from jimi roos on Vimeo.
Jimi Roos - Embroidered t-shirts, sweaters and shirts
